"A Sea Launch Zenit-3SL vehicle, carrying the NSS-8 satellite, experienced an anomaly today during launch operations. Sea Launch will establish a Failure Review Oversight Board to determine the root cause of this anomaly," said a statement issued by Sea Launch.
"A split second following separation from the launch tower, an emergency occurred causing the Zenit-3SL booster rocket to fall back onto the floating platform and damaging it," press secretary Igor Panarin said. "We hope there will be no long-term consequences and that the Sea Launch program will be resumed."
The rocket exploded during liftoff from an oceangoing platform in the Pacific early Wednesday (11:22 p.m. GMT Tuesday), a company spokeswoman said Wednesday.
"There was an explosion as we were lifting off. No one involved in the launch was injured," Paula Korn said.
She said a special commission has been set up to investigate the failed launch.
The Boeing-developed NSS-8 satellite was meant for Netherlands-based SES New Skies.
Established in 1995, the Sea Launch consortium is owned by Boeing, Kvaerner ASA of Oslo, Norway, and SDO Yuzhnoye/PO Yuzhmash of Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, and RSC-Energia of Moscow.
The company launches its vehicles from the equator, which allows rockets to carry heavier payloads than they could from other locations due to the physics of the Earth's rotation.
The Zenit-3SL rocket has three stages, all fueled by kerosene and liquid oxygen.
